This story was written in the summer of 1995. The idea originally came to me on a long plane trip. It is basic, unsophisticated, and silly in the extreme. I have made only very minor changes from the original version.

People who are not of legal age and people who get offended by sex involving more than two persons are hereby warned off. This prologue contains no sex whatsoever, so people who can't deal with that are warned off as well.

All characters are the property of Paramount Pictures, except for Hathaway. The starship Voyager also belongs to Paramount, as do most of her furnishings. The plausibility generator is mine, but they're more than welcome to borrow it.

The Green Stuff
Copyright 1995 by Mockingbird

Prologue

"Captain, I'm reading a malfunction in the plausibility generator." Harry Kim's voice was controlled, professional.

"Plausiton concentrations at eighty-five percent of normal and falling." Tuvok's glacial calm made Kim seem practically hysterical by contrast.

"Bridge to Engineering. B'Elanna, what's going on?"

In the aft section of Main Engineering, B'Elanna Torres and Ensign Hathaway were clustered around the recalcitrant piece of equipment. A greenish vapor was hissing out of a crack in it.

"We've got a leak in one of the input conduits," reported Torres, struggling to pry up the end of a roll of duct tape with her short fingernails and attributing the frustration she was feeling to her Klingon half.

"The imbalance has reached critical levels," said Hathaway, who was nervously monitoring the readout on an adjacent panel.

"Captain, we're going to have to shut the generator down for repairs," said Torres, nodding to Hathaway.

"Acknowledged. See that you get it running again as soon as possible. Janeway out."

"Plausiton concentrations now down to forty percent of normal levels and continuing to fall rapidly," reported Tuvok.

The captain contemplated the starscape on the forward viewer. She felt a familiar tightness in her stomach. They were alone, seventy thousand light years from home. And now, anything was possible.